1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a caster direction-locking mechanism for a mobile cart, and more particularly to such a mechanism for a mobile cart commonly called a "medical emergency crash cart" or simply a "crash cart", for medical emergency use in hospitals and other medical institutions. The direction-locking caster mechanism in accordance with the present invention provides the crash cart with improved high speed stability and maneuverability. A common safety latch mechanism for simultaneously securing all compartments of the crash cart in a locked condition, indicating that the crash cart contains a full complement of readily accessible medical equipment may also be included.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A medical emergency crash cart commonly contains the medical equipment, instruments, and supplies that are necessary particularly for medical procedures practiced in cases of cardiac emergencies. However, the crash cart may be equipped for any type of medical emergency. The crash cart generally includes a housing having a plurality of drawers, shelves, and/or compartments for storing medical equipment and supplies such as syringes and drugs. The housing is supported by a plurality of wheels or casters so that it may be moved rapidly from its place of storage to the place of the medical emergency. To provide maximum efficiency during a medical emergency, a crash cart must therefore provide both (1) agile and stable mobility and (2) efficient storage with immediate visual and physical accessibility to and organization of all medical equipment, instruments, and supplies.
One drawback of current crash carts is the loss of stability during high speed travel. First, as a crash cart must be able to maneuver quickly in small areas of patient's or hospital emergency rooms, it is desirable to support the housing on swivel casters. Second, as medical equipment, instruments, and supplies are expensive, each hospital maintains only a limited number of crash carts (e.g. one crash cart per floor or station). Therefore, when a medical emergency occurs, a crash cart operator must rush the cart through the hospital corridors often over relatively long distances to the patient. However, swivel casters may cause the cart to be difficult to steer at high speeds particularly when an attempt is made to change the direction of movement, for example, by going around corners in corridors or turning into the patient's room. Therefore, the crash cart operator must either reduce his speed through the halls or risk overturning the cart. The risk of overturning increases when the operator must negotiate the cart around a corner, as swivel casters do not provide a firm pivot about which to turn but rather permit inertia of the cart to cause it to tend to continue to move in its original direction. Alternatively, a crash cart may be operated by two persons. However, this is less efficient and may in fact not be possible during any given emergency.
Another drawback of current crash carts is that they provide inefficient storage and accessibility of medical emergency items. An important characteristic of a crash cart is the physical accessibility of the medical equipment, instruments, and supplies stored in it. Immediate accessibility to each item is desired when administering emergency care. In current crash carts, however, a "med tray" (containing syringes and drugs such as ampules of adrenolin, and the like) is typically contained in a drawer within the cart. Storage of all supplies in drawers may make administration of care at the emergency scene difficult because access may only be had to one drawer at a time.
Still a further drawback of current crash carts is the limited ability to visually inspect the medical equipment, instruments and supplies easily and prior to an emergency. Generally, it is important that a crash cart always be fully equipped since if one or more items is missing when an emergency occurs, medical professionals using the cart may not be able to successfully treat the patient. However, for a number of legitimate reasons, individual items are often taken in haste from a crash cart during non-emergency conditions. Each cart must therefore be periodically inspected (e.g. each day or each shift) to insure that it is fully stocked. In light of the large number of items contained therein, it is an inefficient use of hospital time and personnel to physically inspect fully stocked crash carts. The ability to secure and to visually inspect a crash cart, to assure that a full complement of the critical instruments and supplies are contained therein, is therefore highly desirable.
For these and other reasons, the crash carts of the prior art are not entirely satisfactory. A need exists for an improved crash cart having greater high speed stability and maneuverability, greater accessibility to the contents thereof, and a security system for maintaining and assuring maintenance of a full complement of medical equipment, instruments, and supplies therein.